Saving Harry was Secrecy (Was: Re: It's over, Snape is evil)

[lupinlore]

No: HPFGUIDX 137650

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "pippin_999" <foxmoth at q...> 
wrote:
<SNIP>
> Nora:
> > This assumes, of course, that JKR is interested in such strict 
> > correspondences.  The way it's put here smacks of far too much
> Joseph  Campbell structuralism for my taste--by which I mean that
> everything is  reduced down to the points where things correspond, 
> and everything that  doesn't match (and is usually what makes the 
> milieu of each story  different and meaningful) is elided out.  
> 'Derived' in this case seems,  IMO, so vague as to be almost 
> meaningless.
> 
> Pippin:
> When an author who professes no love for the form finds herself 
willy
> nilly writing of castles, unicorns, good and evil enchanters, etc. 
I 
> would say there is some correspondence  at work. And if she has no 
> great affection for these  things in themselves, then perhaps we
> might  profitably look at the structure. 

Which, for many of her readers, would bring us back to eye-rolling 
again.  The problem with strict structural patterns such as the 
Hero's Journey is that, when followed closely, they are BORING.  So 
boring, in fact, that they are rapidly becoming meaningless.  It is 
true, of course, that there are certain tropes and symbols that 
resonate deeply with humans of a given culture over long periods of 
time.  But eventually they wear out as time shifts, as tastes change, 
as basic beliefs evolve, and as people become too aware of the 
structures and symbols in their own right.  In our own culture the 
Hero's Journey has been so driven into the dirt that many of us stick 
our fingers in our ears and start humming loudly every time the name 
Joseph Campbell is mentioned.

Unfortunately, JKR does seem to slavishly follow certain standard 
patterns.  One hopes, however, that she is creative enough not to 
follow them to their dreary end.  If she does, I would say she knows 
a great deal about how to tell a story in the Middle Ages.  Her 
ability to tell a satisfying and meaningful story to a modern 
audience is sadly somewhat lacking, however.

Lupinlore